A day after the Telangana government announced a pay cut for government employees, two other states have joined the list and announced the deferment of salary payment of government staff.
In view of the economic impact caused due to lockdown, and expenditures incurred to control COVID-19, the Odisha government on March 31 issued an order to defer salaries of the chief minister, ministers and All India Service officers as part of austerity measures.
As per the official order, salaries of chief minister, MLAs, chairpersons of all state-run corporations and elected representatives of all local bodies will be reduced by 70 per cent. All India Service Officers will have to take a 50 per cent cut in their salaries.
Similarly, in a meeting held on March 31, chaired by Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, it was informed that since the revenue collection has reduced to Rs 17,000 crore in March, the financial burden has been huge, and therefore, 75 per cent of the salary will be deducted from the chief minister, deputy CM, ministers, assembly speaker, leader of opposition and all MLAs, whereas 50 per cent salary will be deducted from officers and employees of state service and 30 per cent from the rest of the state employees.
As per the statement, officers and employees of all categories of medical and health services, police, Class IV employees and personnel working on contract and honorarium have been exempted from salary postponement.
Earlier this week, the Andhra Pradesh government issued an order deferring the salaries of government employees, including the chief minister, cabinet ministers and IAS officers. While the salaries of the chief minister, the cabinet ministers, MLAs and MLCs will be reduced by 75 per cent, the All India Service Officers will take a 60 per cent cut in their salaries.
Along with other government employees, pension holders will also have to bear a minimum deduction of 50 per cent. However, there will only be a minimum deduction of 10 per cent in the salaries of class-IV employees and retired employees.
The order shall come into force for the month of March 2020, payable in the month of April 2020 and will continue to be in force till further orders.
